Prophets and Prophecies Defined
Crucial lessons from Exodus 4:10–17
God speaks words. God speaks his words through his spokesmen the prophets. Christianity rests upon these two facts. It stands or falls by them.
It is crucial, then, to be clear about what prophecy is. And to take great care to distinguish true prophecy from false. Confused ideas will make God’s words, as bright and sharp as a katana, dull and blunt to us. They will white-ant the framework of our faith.
General and Special Revelation
God has revealed himself to humanity in two ways. He has revealed himself generally – to all peoples at all times – in his creation:
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge (Psalm 19:1–2).
This is God’s general revelation.
He has also revealed himself to particular people at particular times in special ways: by signs and wonders, and by words.
This is God’s special revelation.
Exodus 4:1–9 shows God’s special revelation by signs and wonders; verses 10 to 17 show his special revelation by words. Verses 1 to 9 define the nature and purpose of miracles; verses 10 to 17 do exactly that for prophecy. Verses 1 to 9 forewarn us against false miracles; verses 10 to 17 forewarn us against false prophets.
When I was examining the Christian faith in the early nineties charismatic self-styled prophets like (the later-disgraced) Paul Cain visited Australia and sowed enormous confusion about prophecy. The supposed New Apostolic Reformation stirs up even more misunderstanding today.
We must return again and again to the Bible to learn precisely how God himself defines prophets and prophecy.
The lion has roared – who will not fear?
The Sovereign Lord has spoken – who can but prophesy? Amos 3:8.
Exodus 4:10–17
I have modified the NIV to draw out the gritty hebraisms of the original:
Exodus 4:10 Moses said to Yahweh, “Please, my Lord. I have never been a man of words, neither in the past nor since the day before yesterday [literally “three days ago”] from when you have spoken to your servant. I am slow/heavy of mouth/speech and slow/heavy of tongue.”
Aged forty Moses had tried – boldly, pre-emptively – to detonate a Hebrew insurrection. God had since humbled him.
How can he represent God before Pharaoh and Israel with such a “heavy” mouth and tongue, if words do not trip lightly from his mouth? Walter Kaiser explains that Moses’ worry was not a stutter, but proper communication in Hebrew and Late Egyptian.
Exodus 4:11–12 Yahweh said to him, “Who has made a mouth for the man (אדם, ādām)? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12Now go; I will be with your mouth and will help/throw to you/direct you/teach you what to say.”
God made Moses and his mouth. He can help Moses say what he has commanded him to say. Help translates yārāh (ירה), which is related to the noun torah (תורה), “instruction.” Calvin soberly observes that though God’s servants “are in themselves good for nothing, he forms and prepares them for his work.” It is God’s way to work through jars of clay to make his all-surpassing power seen. He would make Balaam’s donkey speak and he could do the same for Moses. (On many an early Sunday morning I have prayed: “LORD, you spoke through a donkey once . . . .”)
Centuries later Jesus comforted his disciples as they faced hostile interrogation: “Do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say” (Mat 10:19–20).
Human limitations do not limit God.
Exodus 4:13–17 But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Yahweh. Please send someone else.” 14Then Yahweh’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. 15You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I, I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you what to do. 16He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God (אלהים, elōhim) to him. 17But take this staff in your hand so that you can perform the signs with it.”
Aaron would be a mouth for Moses; Moses would be God for Aaron.
Just as Moses would put his words into Aaron’s mouth, so that Aaron’s words would in fact be Moses’ words, God would do the same through Moses: he would speak to Moses “face to face” (Num 12:8; Deut 34:10), and Moses would speak his words to Israel, Egypt, and the world. This is the Bible’s clearest definition of prophecy.
The word prophet, from the Greek prophētēs (προφητης), means “one who speaks forth,” and in the ancient world referred to an interpreter or herald.
In the Old Testament, prophētēs translates navi (נביא), which first appears in Genesis 20:7 where God explains to Abimelek that Abraham “is a navi, prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live.” The very next reference is in Exodus 7, which reinforces our chapter 4 passage:
Exodus 7:1–2 The LORD said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country.”
As Moses’ prophet, Aaron would speak Moses’ words. As God’s prophet, Moses would speak God’s words.
Scholars debate whether a navi is someone who actively calls out, or is passively called. In practice the biblical prophets are called by God to call out his words: given sometimes by face-to-face speech, sometimes through dreams or visions.
Thus the boy prophet Samuel prays to God, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” Micaiah says: “As surely as the LORD lives, I can tell the king only what the LORD tells me” (1 Kgs 22:14). Jeremiah says that “the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, ‘I have put my words in your mouth’” (1:9). Ezekiel gives his own picture of the ingestion and proclamation of God’s words: “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the people of Israel” (3:1). Amos declares: “The lion has roared – who will not fear? The Sovereign Lord has spoken – who can but prophesy?” (3:8).
Scores of prophecies, consequently, are prefaced with the formula “The word of the LORD came to . . . .” Or more commonly, “Thus says the LORD.” And prophecies are often presented as a first person quotation, Amos 6:14, for example: “The Lord God Almighty declares, ‘I will stir up a nation against you, Israel, that will oppress you.’”
In his must-read 1915 classic, The Biblical Idea of Revelation, B. B. Warfield concludes that:
In no case does a prophet put his words forward as his own words. That he is a prophet at all is due not to choice on his own part, but to a call of God, obeyed often with reluctance; and he prophecies or forebears to prophecy not according to his own will, but as the LORD opens and shuts his mouth.
Thus “All Scripture” is, literally, theopneustos (θεοπνευστος), God-outbreathed (2 Tim 3:16). And “prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet 1:21).
Note that prophecy is only sometimes predictive. Louis Berkhof explains well the prophets’ full remit:
It was their duty to protest against mere formalism, to stress moral duty, to urge the necessity of spiritual service, and to promote the interests of truth and righteousness. If the people departed from the path of duty, they had to call them back to the law and to the testimony, and to announce the coming terror of the LORD upon the wicked. But their work was also intimately related to the promise, the gracious promises of God for the future (Systematic Theology, 1938).
In Deuteronomy 13 Moses warns Israel against false prophets. Their pleasing teaching will seduce Israel away from God and his law. Thus God tests the obedience and faith of his people. False prophets will be exposed by the failure of their predictions.
At Scarborough Beach this morning I saw yellow signs with black writing and a red cross warning swimmers against dangerous currents. Beware of any teacher who picks and chooses from the Bible, who pleases your autonomy, your dreams, your worldly desires.
Jesus the Archetypal Prophet
God’s people must train their eyes and ears on his true prophets who are all sent, ultimately, by the One Great Prophet Jesus Christ. Moses points us to him:
Deuteronomy 18:15, 18 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. . . . 18I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him.
God speaks words. God speaks ultimately through the Word himself, Jesus Christ, God Incarnate. Listen to and obey every word of Jesus: spoken through his Prophets and Apostles, written in the Scriptures:
They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.
By them your servant is warned;
in keeping them there is great reward (Psalm 19:10–11).
He speaks to me through his spokesman. I listen, I try to obey, but I constantly fail him. I am a sinner. Brilliant read PC.